Behind this name is an evolution of the general public nForce 4. It is based on the nForce 4 Pro and the additional chips which supports 2 full PCI Express x16 slots instead of two physical PCI Express x16 slots which are in fact 2xPCI Express x8 slots. 2 nForce4 chipsets are present on the motherboard.
This nForce 4 SLI x16 will replace nForce 4 SLI chipsets for high end motherboard. nForce 4 SLI chipsets will then replace nForce 4 Ultra’s for middle range motherboards to democratize SLI. The good thing is that computer shops will now be able to offer weird configurations such as two GeForce 6600LE with an nForce 4 SLI.
Performances with two real PCI Express x16 graphic slots shouldn’t change much except for very specific cases like SLI antialiasing which can’t (temporarily?) communicate via the SLI and has to use the PCI Express. This of course has very strong impact on performances. Additional bandwidth could be helpful even if the rest of the computer might still hold back performances. From our point of view, the main really good is that nForce 4 SLI motherboards’ prices will be reduced soon!
At the time when ATI, its eternal competitor, gained market shares, NVIDIA multiplies very good results thanks to a very strong position on high end products but also on the professional graphic card market. The nForce4 very good sales also contributed to the record financial result of Q2. Sales are up 26% and reached $575 million as compared to $456 million at the same period last year. Net profit is also increased to $75 millions from $5. NVIDIA’s situation is better than ever and the GeForce FX difficulties now really seem to belong to the past.